whitepaper on city guide 2 0

“City Guides”

An

Web 2.0 Sector Analysis

By

Web Buddies S A Enayath

Kartiksinh Sarvaiya

Shikha Gupta

Executive Summary:

As the web is increasingly becoming participative, more and more websites are being developed on the Web 2.0 platform and the existing ones are transtioning themselves to include the Web 2.0 features. One of the domains where the Web 2.0 features have been successfully leveraged is that of City Guides.

When someone wants to have some information about a particular city or a particular product/place in a particular city, he can ask his friends, read books/yellow pages on the particular city or he can browse the net for the information. The Web 2.0 platform gives him the benefits of a place/product being reviewed by a large number of users so that he can take an informed decision. This sector was pioneered by two gentleman from US namely Craig Newmark and Bill Gross in the year 1995.

The three top players in this sector are craigslist.org, citysearch.com and yelp.com. Both craislist.org and citysearch.com started as Web 1.0 sites and gradually trasitioned to Web 2.0, while yelp.com started in 2004 completely as a Web 2.0 initiative. All the three sites are US based and include mostly the cities of US. The users of these sites also show a similar demographic profile but the differtiating factor with Craigslist which enjoys the maximum traffic among the three lies in the fact that it provides a platform for dating and job-search which is unique to Craigslist. Citysearch and Yelp have a similar revenue model comprising banner ads and classified ads while the sole revenue for Craigslist is the paid job-ads in select cities.

As the internet penetration has incresed in India over the years, so has the use of local city guides. Some of the prevelant players in the Indian market include sulekha.com, justdial.com and whereincity.com. Among these, Sulekha has the highest ranking. Sulekha also started as a Web 1.0 site and currently it has almost all the features of Web 2.0. Its revenue model is similar to Citysearch and Yelp.

As the online ad-industry is growing very rapidly, the revenue model of these sites is pretty sustainable. The future trends in this industry include virtual tours, the use of 3G and GPS on mobile for directions and the increasing use of video ads. Also in the developing countries like India where we have city guides for particular cities and not a single point, the industry may see a consolidation where the small players from each cities would integrate their databases.

Letter of transmittal

Praxis Business School

Date: 18/08/2008

To: Mr. Prithwis Mukherjee

From: Web Buddies

Dear Sir,

We are enclosing a report on the analysis of city guides after detailing all our observations. The report gives a detailed description of city guides, the demographic profile, the web 2.0 component of the sector, the competitive scenario, the top three players, the legal issues, India story and the future

trends.

Web Buddies

S A Enayath

Kartiksinh Sarvaiya

Shikha Gupta

Contents

SL.NO

PARTICULAR

PAGE NO.

1

Introduction

4

2

Users Participation

5

3

The Web 2.0 Component

7

4

The Competitive Scenario

9

5

The Pioneers

10

6

Major Global Players

11

7

Market Analysis

15

8

Taxation & Privacy Policy

17

9

The Indian Story

19

10

Future Trends

22

City Guides Praxis Business School

Web 2.0 Sector Analysis Page 4

Introduction There are three ways to look at how society is informed. The first is that people are gullible and will read, listen to, or watch just about anything. The second is that most people require an informed intermediary to tell them what is good, important or meaningful. The third is that people are pretty smart; given the means, they can sort things out for themselves; find their own version of the truth. But with the growing number of sites the ability of people/users to find and explore new content is becoming increasingly important. One way to approach this problem is by developing a standard for aggregating content. A content aggregator would presumably then be able to index the incoming feeds and provide the user with information about content she's likely to be interested in. Aggregator, also known as a feed reader, news reader or simply aggregator, is a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. The more you will be able let your content find its distribution channels online without trying to own and control each choke point, the least resistance you will be offering to the sweeping transformations that are already shaping the way that people access and engage with their favourite content. City guides and reviews is one such content aggregator sector in web which aggregates web content on accommodations, restaurants, attractions, etc. of your city. City guides websites features in the use of Internet to improve the city service and provide opportunity to emerging business. Using a web 2.0 city guide website is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what's great (and not so great) in your world. You already know that asking friends is the best way to find restaurants, dentists, hairstylists, and anything local. A web2.0 city guide makes it fast and easy by collecting and organizing your friends' recommendations in one convenient place. A city guide taps into the community's voice and reveals honest and current insights on local businesses and services on everything from martinis to mechanics. It connects to just real people, writing real reviews, and that's the real deal. It is the fun and engaging place for passionate and opinionated influencers to share the experiences they've had with local businesses and services.

Need or want that a city guide aim to satisfy

• Accommodations

• Restaurants

• Attractions

• History

• Calendar of Events

• Map

• PDF of your visitors guide



Users Participation Through these emerging electronic mediums, the Web has enabled its users to create, increase or renew their social capital. These mediums/communities are not merely trading grounds for information but a powerful extension of the social networks. And as in any social system, looking at the motivations helps in understanding the reason behind their active participation. The Hierarchy of Needs was the brainchild of Abraham Maslow, one of the founding fathers of humanistic psychology. He believed that people are motivated by the urge to satisfy needs ranging from basic survival to self-fulfilment, and that they don’t fill the higher-level needs until the lower-level ones are satisfied.

We can assume that people are motivated to participate in order to achieve a sense of be-longing to a group; to build self-esteem through contributions and to garner recognition for contributing; and to develop new skills and opportunities for ego building and self-actualization. We have compiled a list of reasons why users are becoming participants. While reading this list, consider that an individual may be motivated by multiple reasons.

1. To gain status or build reputation in a given community. 2. To create connections with others who have similar interests, online and off. 3. Sense-making and understanding. 4. To inform and be informed. 5. To create.

Now if we look at the participants in a city guide site we identity the following contributors in a usual web 2.0 city guide website:

1. Business Owners – These are business houses or business owners who want to advertise about their product, service and their business to the right target customers within a specific geographical location in the most cost effective way.

2. Reviewers – These are the people who may or may not have monetary stake in the particular product. But they might have been the users of these products and would like to discuss about their experience associated with it.

3. Visitors – They are the regular visitors to the site and want to just check the updates in it.



4. Knowledge seekers – These people visit the sites only to increase their knowledge base.

5. Locals – Who will know the neighbourhood better than the locals itself, they visit these city guides sites of their own city and contribute the development of the site by posting new information and also reviewing older post.

City Guides

Locals

Visitors

Reviewers

Knowledge seekers

Business owners

City Guides The Web 2.0 component:

The reasons and the extent to which the Web 2.0 characteristics are manifested in this sector can be understood by answering the following questions i.e. if a particular site gets positive responses out of the following questions, it means thaconcepts:

• Are your customers likely to participate in uservisitors read and comment on blogs? Will they share their views in user reviews? If your target audience is loyal and passionate about yoopportunity to share their views can be extremely valuable, enabling them to influence others

• Do your users have a special skill or knowledge that relates to your product or service? If so, wikis and forums are a great way forknowledge around your products and services, enriching their experience and that of others

• Are your customers likely to be comfortable with rich internet applications that function somewhat differently from those to whichuser base change averse? The more accepting of change your audience is, the more rapidly you can adopt Web 2.0 technologies

• Have your competitors deployed leading technologies? If so, you may want to escalate your adoption of Web 2.0.

• Do your customers frequent sites that have leading edge technologies? A positive response indicates that your customers are ready to accept Web 2.0 technologies

• Do you serve a technically savvy group of customers? If your target market readily adapts the latest technologies, Web 2.0 technologies are likely an excellent way to invest your resources. If your customers are slow adopters, consider waiting until they are farther along in the adoption curve

Since most of the city guide websites score verconcepts are highly leveraged in this sector.

The Web 2.0 tools used in this sector are:

Chats Blogs Communities


The reasons and the extent to which the Web 2.0 characteristics are manifested in this sector can be understood by answering the following questions i.e. if a particular site gets positive responses out of the following questions, it means that it can leverage Web 2.0

Are your customers likely to participate in user-generated content? Will your site visitors read and comment on blogs? Will they share their views in user reviews? If your target audience is loyal and passionate about your company, providing them an opportunity to share their views can be extremely valuable, enabling them to

Do your users have a special skill or knowledge that relates to your product or service? If so, wikis and forums are a great way for them to contribute to the body of knowledge around your products and services, enriching their experience and that of

Are your customers likely to be comfortable with rich internet applications that function somewhat differently from those to which they are accustomed? Is your user base change averse? The more accepting of change your audience is, the more rapidly you can adopt Web 2.0 technologies

Have your competitors deployed leading technologies? If so, you may want to Web 2.0.

Do your customers frequent sites that have leading edge technologies? A positive response indicates that your customers are ready to accept Web 2.0 technologies

Do you serve a technically savvy group of customers? If your target market readily pts the latest technologies, Web 2.0 technologies are likely an excellent way to

invest your resources. If your customers are slow adopters, consider waiting until they are farther along in the adoption curve

Since most of the city guide websites score very high on the above questions, Web 2.0 concepts are highly leveraged in this sector.

The Web 2.0 tools used in this sector are:

Communities Forums Mobile Rating RSS


The reasons and the extent to which the Web 2.0 characteristics are manifested in this sector can be understood by answering the following questions i.e. if a particular site gets

t it can leverage Web 2.0

generated content? Will your site visitors read and comment on blogs? Will they share their views in user reviews? If

ur company, providing them an opportunity to share their views can be extremely valuable, enabling them to

Do your users have a special skill or knowledge that relates to your product or them to contribute to the body of

knowledge around your products and services, enriching their experience and that of

Are your customers likely to be comfortable with rich internet applications that they are accustomed? Is your

user base change averse? The more accepting of change your audience is, the more

Have your competitors deployed leading technologies? If so, you may want to

Do your customers frequent sites that have leading edge technologies? A positive response indicates that your customers are ready to accept Web 2.0 technologies

Do you serve a technically savvy group of customers? If your target market readily pts the latest technologies, Web 2.0 technologies are likely an excellent way to

invest your resources. If your customers are slow adopters, consider waiting until

y high on the above questions, Web 2.0

City Guides The Web 2.0 technologies used in this sector are:

MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS). MySQL is popular for web applications and acts as the database component of the LAMP, BAMP, MAMP, and WAMP platforms.

Linux is an open source operating system which is widely used in servers. Most of the Web 2.0 platforms rely of Linux servers.

Ruby on Rails is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.

Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the Apache Software Foundation. The application is available for a wide variety of operating systems, from Linux to Microsoft Windows.

PHP is a computer scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. PHP is a widely used generalespecially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

Asynchronous Javascript + XML .

The Ajax technologies are XSLT, XMLHttpRequest, Javascript.

Praxis Business SchoolThe Web 2.0 technologies used in this sector are:

MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS). MySQL is popular for web applications and acts as the database component of the LAMP, BAMP, MAMP, and WAMP platforms.

Linux is an open source operating system which is widely used in servers. Most of the Web 2.0 platforms rely of Linux servers.

Ruby on Rails is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.

Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the Apache Software Foundation. The application is available for a wide variety of operating systems, from Linux to Microsoft Windows.

PHP is a computer scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. PHP is a widely used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

Asynchronous Javascript + XML .

The Ajax technologies are - HTML/XHTML, Document Object Model (DOM), XML, XSLT, XMLHttpRequest, Javascript.


MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS). MySQL is popular for web applications and acts as the database component of the LAMP, BAMP,

Linux is an open source operating system which is widely used in servers. Most of

Ruby on Rails is an open source web application framework for the Ruby

Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the Apache Software Foundation. The application is available for a wide variety

PHP is a computer scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic purpose scripting language that is

especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

HTML/XHTML, Document Object Model (DOM), XML,

City Guides The Competitive Scenario:

People have been using the concept of the city guides since long back even before the existence of internet. The way people get information about various cities and places were:

• Ask friends and relatives who have visited the places before

• Contact the travel agents for information

• While going to a new city, ask the Taxi drivers and other locals about the city, places and products

• Get information about the cities from the books available for particular cities

• Look into the yellow-pages for specific

• Browse the internet for Web 1.0 sites on cities and online yellow

• Use the Web 2.0 city guides for information and user and editorial reviews

Hence this sector faces a lot of competition from not only the Web 1.0 sites but also from various other substitutes

The differentiating factor for Web 2.0 sites vis

• Places being reviewed by large user base which helps to facilitates the decision making and is more trust-worthy than one person writing something about a city ora place



Ask friends and relatives who have visited the places before

el agents for information

While going to a new city, ask the Taxi drivers and other locals about the city, places

Get information about the cities from the books available for particular cities

pages for specific information

Browse the internet for Web 1.0 sites on cities and online yellow-pages

Use the Web 2.0 city guides for information and user and editorial reviews

Hence this sector faces a lot of competition from not only the Web 1.0 sites but also

The differentiating factor for Web 2.0 sites vis-à-vis Web 1.0 being:

Places being reviewed by large user base which helps to facilitates the decision worthy than one person writing something about a city or



While going to a new city, ask the Taxi drivers and other locals about the city, places

Hence this sector faces a lot of competition from not only the Web 1.0 sites but also

Places being reviewed by large user base which helps to facilitates the decision worthy than one person writing something about a city or

City Guides

The Pioneers:

This sector of city guides was pioneered by two people in the year 1995

1. Craig Newmark

Having observed people helping one another in a friendly, social and trusting community way on the Internet, the WELL, and Usenet, and feeling isolated as a relative newcomer to San Francisco, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark decided to create something similar for local events.

The first postings debuted in early 1995. The initial technology encountered some limits, so by June 1995 majordomo had been installed and the mailing list "craigslist" resumed operations. Most of the early postings were submitted were notices of social events of interest to software and Internet developers living and working in San Francisco.

2. Bill Gross

He was the founder of the Idealab and GoTo.com, Inc which the first company to successfully provide an Internet search engine which relied upon sponsored search results and pay-per-click advertisements. Citysearch was founded in September 1995 by Jeffrey Brewer, Caskey Dickson, Brad Haaugard, Taylor Wescoatt, and Charles Conn. The idea, initiative, and seed capital

Currently the major players in this sector are:


This sector of city guides was pioneered by two people in the year 1995

Having observed people helping one another in a friendly, social and trusting community way on the Internet, the WELL, and Usenet, and feeling isolated as a relative newcomer to San Francisco, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark decided to

milar for local events.

The first postings debuted in early 1995. The initial technology encountered some limits, so by June 1995 majordomo had been installed and the mailing list "craigslist" resumed operations. Most of the early postings were submitted by Newmark and were notices of social events of interest to software and Internet developers living

He was the founder of the Idealab and GoTo.com, Inc which the first company to search engine which relied upon sponsored search

click advertisements. Citysearch was founded in September 1995 by Jeffrey Brewer, Caskey Dickson, Brad Haaugard, Taylor Wescoatt, and Charles Conn. The idea, initiative, and seed capital came initially from Bill Gross.

Currently the major players in this sector are:


Having observed people helping one another in a friendly, social and trusting community way on the Internet, the WELL, and Usenet, and feeling isolated as a relative newcomer to San Francisco, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark decided to

The first postings debuted in early 1995. The initial technology encountered some limits, so by June 1995 majordomo had been installed and the mailing list "craigslist"

by Newmark and were notices of social events of interest to software and Internet developers living

He was the founder of the Idealab and GoTo.com, Inc which the first company to search engine which relied upon sponsored search

click advertisements. Citysearch was founded in September 1995 by Jeffrey Brewer, Caskey Dickson, Brad Haaugard, Taylor Wescoatt, and Charles

City Guides Major Global Players:

Craigslist – www.craigslist.comCraigslist is a central network of online communities, featuring free classified advertisements (with jobs, internships, housing, personals, erotic services, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, gigs, resume, and pets categories) and forums on various topics.

The service was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After incorporation as a private for-profit company in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000, four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003. As of Craigslist had established itself in approximately 450 cities in 50 countries.

As of 2007, Craigslist operates with a staff of 24 people. Its sole source of revenue is paid job ads in select cities ($75 per ad for the San Francisco Bay AreaAngeles, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Chicago and recently Portland, Oregon) and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).

The site serves over nine billion page views per month, putting itamong web sites world wide, ninth place overall among web sites in the United States (per Alexa.com on August 21, 2008), to over thirty million unique visitors. With over thirty million


www.craigslist.com is a central network of online communities, featuring free classified

advertisements (with jobs, internships, housing, personals, erotic services, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, gigs, resume, and pets categories) and forums on

The service was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After profit company in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more

U.S. cities in 2000, four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003. As of September 2007, Craigslist had established itself in approximately 450 cities in 50 countries.

As of 2007, Craigslist operates with a staff of 24 people. Its sole source of revenue is paid job ads in select cities ($75 per ad for the San Francisco Bay Area; $25 per ad for New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Chicago and recently Portland, Oregon) and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).

The site serves over nine billion page views per month, putting it in 47th place overall among web sites world wide, ninth place overall among web sites in the United States (per Alexa.com on August 21, 2008), to over thirty million unique visitors. With over thirty million


is a central network of online communities, featuring free classified advertisements (with jobs, internships, housing, personals, erotic services, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, gigs, resume, and pets categories) and forums on

The service was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After profit company in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more

September 2007,

As of 2007, Craigslist operates with a staff of 24 people. Its sole source of revenue is paid job ; $25 per ad for New York, Los

Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Chicago and recently Portland,

in 47th place overall among web sites world wide, ninth place overall among web sites in the United States (per Alexa.com on August 21, 2008), to over thirty million unique visitors. With over thirty million



new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives over two million new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world. The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements, to personal ads and even erotic services.

In December 2006, at the UBS Global Media Conference in New York, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told Wall Street analysts that Craigslist has little interest in maximizing profit, instead preferring to help users find cars, apartments, jobs, and dates.

The company does not formally disclose financial or ownership information. Analysts and commentators have reported varying figures for its annual revenue, ranging from $10 million in 2004, $20 million in 2005, and $25 million in 2006 to possibly $150 million in 2007.

It is believed to be owned principally by Newmark, Buckmaster, and eBay (the three board members). eBay owns approximately 25%, and Newmark is believed to own the largest stake

Citysearch- www.citysearch.com

This site was developed by Bill Gross of Idea Lab in the year 1995. Gross' company, Idealab, created a slew of Web businesses in the 1990s, including pay-per-click advertising pioneer GoTo.com. Citysearch.com was one of the initial starters in this business of online search engine for city. Citysearch.com, now a part of InterActive Corp., established the category of local online community directories. eToys demonstrated the tremendous potential for online consumer retail and became one of the most recognized brands during the early days of e-commerce.

It is a part of media and adverrtisement business of Interactive Corp. It is a network of local city guide website that offers primarily content for major cities in US and abroad. Information about city’s art, entertainment event, bar and restaurant, recreation, community activity, business etc

Revenue model for citysearch.com: The revenue for citysearch.com is only from Media & Advertisement sector. The local advertising is offered through a pay-for-performance model where the local businesses pay for the number of consumer connections made. It is measured through:

1. Visit to City search profile pages of the business 2. Or, traffic directed to their website through cityserach.com (Different from add) 3. Call made to the toll free number of the business.

It also support online local transaction, including hotel reservation and match making, ticketing and travel related services through affiliations with leading e-commerce website.



Citysearch.com also gets a fee on per click or a revenue %, as applicable for consumer leads sent to the respective websites.

Advertisement revenue primarily through the display of paid listing in response to the search.

1. Sale of online advertisement for both local and national 2. Transaction fee from affiliated partners 3. Self enrolment 4. Enhance listing in search results 5. Targeted Email 6. Sponsorship package

Citysearch.com

■ Leading local search and directory company with 15.9 million business listings nationwide

■ 12 million unique monthly users (comScore Jan 08)

■ Approximately 500 user reviews submitted daily; over 600,000 currently in Citysearch.com’s database

IAC

• IAC was named the #1 Most Admired Company two years in a row in the Internet Services & Retailing sector by Fortune magazine

• With 155 million unique monthly users, IAC’s network of sites would rank as the 9th largest in the world (comScore Jan 08)

• IAC stock grew over 180% between 1995 and 2007, outpacing the Nasdaq composite index and the S&P 500

• IAC is the 4th largest buyer of online advertising in the U.S. (Nielsen Online AdRelevance, Jan 08)



Yelp – www.yelp.com

Founded in July 2004 by Jeremy Stoppelman (CEO) and Russel Simmons (CTO), Yelp is an online urban city guide that helps people find cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, based on the informed opinions of a vibrant and active community of locals.

Yelp is a more prominent city guide in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle. But now they are also in other parts of the U.S. and Canada too.

The revenue models for Yelp include advertising revenue and selling merchandise from their Yelp Store.

Demographics – Major Players

If we look at the demographics of the three major players in the sector, we find consistency in all. We see that majority of the visitors from US cities and they show the same demographic traits as shown below.

Demographics Craigslist Citysearch Yelp

Global Traffic Rank

11 87 79

Global Traffic Count

1.13 Bn 9.9 Mn (US only) 11.3 Mn

Major visitors From

US US US

Gender Male-Female

(Both) More Female

Male-Female (Both)

Age 18-49 18+ 18-49

Education College Grads College Grads College Grads

Economic Strata More Affluent Affluent More Affluent



Market Analysis on Online City Guide Websites:

The Porter’s analysis can provide insight into both your online and offline competitive environments. In any industry there are five forces that influence what happens within the industry. This together make up the business environment. By studying the structure of and dynamics between these forces in the online industry we will try to discover opportunities for improving upon the marketing strategies.

Five Forces in the Online Industry:

1. Threat of new entrants:

Off-line competitors as well as new companies entering the industry via a Website.

ü Technology easily available as most of these are developed in open source ü Low capital investment ü Access to distribution channels: In web 2.0 were the site provides information to the

user and based on the experience spend over the website the user participates in the site by writing blogs, reviews, rating etc. This is a differentiating factor in most of the websites.

Threat of susbstitute (Low)Like tourist guide, Just dial services, T.V• No common platform for all the

services offered• Main business of these websites and

the target group are different.

Bargaining power of buyer (High)• Many sites have developed in this

similar context.

Bargaining power of supplier (High) Threat of new entrants (Moderate)

• Technology easily available• Low capital investment • Access to distribution channels

Competitive Rivalry in Web 2.0 Industry



3. Substitutes for products offered: Other means and sources like tourist guide, Just dial services, T.V provides the same set of services as these websites provide. But all this has some constraints:

ü No common platform for all the services offered in websites. ( Providing information to making the transaction online)Most of these sites may only provide the information or may only help in transactions

ü Main business of these websites is through advertising revenue so they provide free services to the user. Thus these websites are threat to the traditional business.

4. Bargaining power of the suppliers: Those companies that supply to the similar kind of products (or parts if you are a manufacturer) and/or services and other suppliers are the Web hosting, software, and other vendors that supply Web-enabling technology. The power of suppliers tends to be a reversal of the power of buyers.

ü The switching costs are low. ü There is a possibility of the supplier integrating forward e.g. Brewers buying bars.

Customers are fragmented (not in clusters) so that they have little bargaining power e.g. Gas/Petrol stations in remote places.

5. Bargaining power of the user: Visitors, potential visitors and advertisers to the Website are also the suppliers in terms of user generated content in the websites through blogs, review, rating etc.

ü This is high as there are many sites which have developed in this similar context.

5. Existing companies:

ü This is most likely to be high where entry is likely; there is the threat of substitute products, and suppliers and buyers in the market attempt to control. This is why it is always seen in the centre of the diagram



Taxation Policy

As the Internet began to grow and become more critical to the economy of the United States during the 1990s, so did the efforts of state and local governments to tax Internet access. Almost as fast as Internet access could be deployed, states rushed in to create new taxes. In Connecticut, it was a Sales and Use Tax; in Hawaii, a General Excise Tax; in New Mexico, a Gross Receipts Tax; in North Dakota a Sales Tax; in Ohio an Electronic Information Services Tax; and so on. In 1998 the congress recognized the importance of universal access to broadband to the future of America and the damage caused by the states and localities. Thus the Congress elected to protect Internet access from taxation through passage of the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Later the State legislators and governors enacted similar tax bans in many states in the years following the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Like any other commodity, Internet access is price elastic. That is, the willingness of consumers to purchase the product decreases as the cost goes up, particularly among working-class Americans with limited disposable income. Virtually all studies done to date show that broadband service is highly price-elastic, including the research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the seminal 2005 University of Michigan study clearly show that income levels are the second leading determinant of broadband access utilization in the US population. Any increase in cost due to taxation would therefore significantly affect broadband utilization. Likewise, small service providers that do not have large internal tax compliance departments would have to bear this as an additional cost, further driving up the cost of their services or driving these competitors out of business. Thus the current moratorium prohibits three things: state and local taxation of Internet access, multiple taxes on a single e-commerce transaction, and taxes that discriminate against online transactions as this could damage internet-based commerce, a critical and growing component in the economy.

Privacy

These sites collect personal information from various sites that can identify the user. In this process they take the help of their partner site to analyse the user’s behaviour with the help of cookies and web beacon assigned to the particular computer. On one hand it increases access to website by giving a personalizing one’s online experience and on the other hand it intrudes in one’s personal space. Moreover these websites share the personal information of the user with



• Service providers, such as credit-card payment processors • Other partner businesses; • Other businesses with which we carefully select to offer products, services, and

promotions through their website or offline; and • Other third parties in limited circumstances, such as complying with legal

requirements, preventing fraud, and protecting the safety of our users.

Copyrights

All the content in the Web site are the proprietary property of the website. One is authorised to retain a copy of pages of this site for his/her own personal use but shall not duplicate, download, publish, modify, or otherwise distribute the material on this Site for any commercial use. The Website includes discussion forums or review on its products. The information gathered from such forum about the user can be used for commercial purpose by the websites. The website has no control over information provided by the user generated content through review and rating.



The Indian Story –

Some of the Indian players in this sector are:

Sulekha - www.sulekha.com

Sulekha.com is one of the most popular Indian Internet media companies reaching and connecting millions of Indians in 24 cities in India, US and also now present in other cities beyond India and the USA.

Sulekha.com is headquartered in Chennai in India and Austin in North America. Sulekha.com has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and New York. Sulekha.com has received investments from Indigo Monsoon Group and Norwest Venture Partners.

What makes Sulekha.com distinctive is that it is entirely member-generated with tens of millions of pages of content and commerce created by millions of its members. This unexampled emotional loyalty of its members has won Sulekha.com rare media acclaim.

Social Media: Sulekha.com is the largest and most popular social media site to express, review and share in the form of Blogs, Photos, Videos, discussions in multiple explosively popular areas of interest such as Movies, Travel, Food, News, Cricket and more. Sulekha.com members also build their personal networks through Sulekha.com's powerful social networking substrate.



Local Commerce: Sulekha.com is the largest and most popular local commerce site in India, uniquely integrating Classifieds and Yellow Pages. With millions of listings and users every month, Sulekha.com offers unmatched value across multiple areas such as Real Estate, Cars/Bikes, Personal Finance, Tours/Travels, Coaching/Training, Jobs, Food/Dining, Education, Events and many more. Sulekha.com is also the largest online ticketeer for Indian events and movies in North America.

Global Presence and Local Reach: Sulekha.com is unparalleled in the breadth and depth of services at a local level in 25 cities: Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune in India; New Jersey, New York, Bay Area, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington DC, Austin, Seattle and more in US; Toronto in Canada and London in UK.

Sulekha.com Online and on Mobile: In addition to powering local commerce online, Sulekha.com powers Yellow Pages and Classifieds on three of the biggest mobile operators in India: Vodafone, Reliance and Airtel. Sulekha.com also powers Classifieds for Sify.com and Indian Express.



Future Trends in Web 2.0 City Guides

Some of the future trends that we have identified in this sector are:

1. Virtual Tours:

A virtual tour (or panoramic tour) is a simulation of an actually existing location, usually composed of panoramic images, a sequence of hyperlinked still or video images, and/or virtual models of the real location. They also may use other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration, and text. As opposed to actual tourism, a virtual tour is typically accessed on a personal computer or an interactive kiosk.

2. GPS on Mobile:

This feature would help the user to directly get the direction for the particular place on his mobile phone and hence this would help him while he is travelling

3. Video Ads:

As the products and service providers give their ads on these sites and with the coming up 3G technology, video ads would make more sense since this would enable the user to get a feel of what a particular shop/restaurant would look like

4. Consolidation:

Also in the developing countries like India where we have city guides for particular cities and not a single point, the industry may see a consolidation where the small players from each cities would integrate their databases.



Bibliography:

www.craigslist.com

www.citysearch.com

www.yelp.com

www.sulekha.com

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/craigslist

www.alexa.com

www.quantcast.com

www.spyfu.com



www.praxis.ac.in

2007 - 2009